This is actually a piece of property an American friend purchased with his Indonesian wife. They plan to build their retirement home here. They could do much worse, that’s for sure. The Korean gal is not included, she’s with me here in the USA.
A traditional Balinese meal. Cat fish steamed in banana leaf, Grilled Tilapia, and deep fried Carp. Fresh salad, 3 kinds of Sambals sauce, grilled eggplant with Tempe and Tofu.
Heading back to Seoul, Korea for a summer respite. Who knows, perhaps I’ll find something worthy to blog about during my travels.
Hasta la vista! Anyongheegaesaeyo!
Leaving the country. For awhile. I expect I’ll periodically be posting fascinating insights from across the wide Pacific.
I’ll be back in time for Thanksgiving.
Anyongheegaeseyo.
From Bali…
One of the best dining experiences I have know was beachside in Bali. The food, the friends, the view all most excellent.
Worth the trip!
I really do feel a significant post comin’ on. In the meantime, a photo from a small village in Bali…
Heh, this guy served a useful purpose. You removed the phallic apparatus and whacked the wooden native in order to call room service. One of the many fine memories of a Bali vacation.
Well, Labor Day weekend was for me at least. Nice little road trip to the East Sea of Korea. Half the fun was getting there. Let’s ride!
It’s always sweet to live the hustle bustle of the city behind…
Once you hit Route 6 you can’t go wrong…
When you travel through the mountains in Korea, you travel through the mountains.
You can’t spend much time on the highway without taking a break for some Korean noodles. Well, I can. But I’m not Korean.
Did I mention there were tunnels?
And some nice two lane blacktop…
Arrive safely in Gangnuem where we booked a room in this comfortable place for 50,000 Won.
And enjoyed ocean views like this…
…and this.
The room was small but functional and comfortable.
Sharing the morning coffee with a butterfly…or is that a moth?
A rainy morning on the beach was actually quite pleasant…
And now I’m back safe and sound in the city…
First in a new series here at LTG. A random photo from my vast archives.
This here would be a meandering desert highway in Southern California which ultimately takes you into Death Valley.
Filipino style.
Ate dinner at Tequila Reef in AC and was more than satisfied with the quality and quantity of my platter. Shredded beef taco, shredded beef enchilada and chicken enchilada, plus beans and rice. Set me back 360 pesos, or about $7.50.
Definitely the best Mexican I have experienced since leaving the USA.
Open air darts that is. Spent some pleasant hours yesterday at the Blue Boar Inn chucking darts in the upstairs open air dart bar. The temp was hotter than my darts, which actually doesn’t say much because the same statement would be true if it were December in Alaska. But actually I played alright.
The proprietor of the Blue Boar is Jimmy Dale, who is known around town as Harry the Horse. You can read his monthly newsletter here if you are so inclined. Great guy and enjoys the game of darts. Even invited me to play on his team. Which I might consider if I’m willing to make a weekly trip down from Subic. We’ll see…
Jimmy and his upstairs open air dart bar at the Blue Boar…
We played a nice 9 leg set (cricket, 301 DIDO, and 501) of which I managed to eek out a 5-4 victory. Then he called in an Aussie teammate who put a pretty good ass-whuppin on me. I had a great time though.
…and workin’ overtime.
Well, not really. But I am getting some things done. Had a good meeting with the Special Resident Retirement Visa (SSRV) representative and came away with a whole new list of things to be done. Some I can do now, others will have to wait until I return in September.
Right now I’m fixin’ to head over to the medical clinic for the exam required for all SSRV applicants. Then I’ll go to the mall and have 14 2×2 photographs made of my handsome mug. 12 for the SSRV, and two for the bank. I need to open a Philippine bank account in order to make the required SSRV deposit.
Anyway, I’m getting about by the most common* means of transport in the Philippines (and my least favorite)–the trike.
This is my happy driver from yesterday, anticipating charging me the foreigner tax for a short ride (about twice the fare he could get away with for a local). Ah well, we’re talkin’ the difference between 50 cents and a dollar here, so I don’t sweat it. My problem is folding my oversized body into the sidecar. It ain’t pretty or comfortable, trust me on that!
*I guess the Jeepney might be the most popular means of mass transit, but the trike takes the place of taxi’s, generally. Although taxi do exist, just not so much in AC.
I arrived safely and without incident at midnight. Drank some SML’s and went to bed. Woke up, ate, exchanged some dollars for pesos, walked to the mall, bought a cell phone (Samsung!), walked back to the room, and now I’m posting this play by play account of my exciting trip. Next I’m going to take a trike to the Perimeter road area and meet with the SSRV (retirement visa) counselor.
Needless to say, it has been an outstanding trip thus far!
One of the highlights occurred on the bus to the Airport. I just love some of the English naming conventions adopted by Korean businesses, both large and small. Like this:
Perhaps their motto is “we take the convenience out of convenience store”.
At the mall today I was reminded that wherever you go in the world, you are never far from Korea.
More great stuff like this to follow…
…the wonderful wizard of immigration for the Republic of the Philippines. Among other things.
10 days of adventure in AC, Subic/Olongapo, and Manila. If you call house hunting and dealing with bureaucrats an adventure.
Well, it won’t be all work. I’m taking my darts and looking forward to quaffing a couple a few San Miguel Lights along the way…
I’m taking along the camera, so chances are you’ll see some photographic evidence of the trip here at LTG soon enough.
See y’all on the other side.
and back to day again…
The trip across the wide Pacific was 24 hours door-to-door. The Seoul/Narita/Chicago/DC iteniary was as miserable as it sounds.
United Airlines is a big step down from my preferred Korean Airlines is every aspect imaginable. The equipment (747s without seatback entertainment systems), food, service, and flight attendent attractiveness were all disappointments on this trip. Worse, United is extremely chintzy with leg room in coach. When I sat down my knees were already bumping the seatback in front of me. When the SOB in front of me reclined his seat, well, it was like being captured in a spider’s web (there was a big size guy in the middle seat next to me spilling over into my space exacerbating my claustrophobic conditions). It was pretty much a tortuous journey but it is over and I can only look forward to the return trip next week with dismay.
(this is the first of a series of catch-up posts. I’ve been too busy and too jetlagged to have regularly updated the blog. For which I apologize and hereby begin the process of making amends.)
Had some nice weekend weather. Took advantage with a 3 hour bicycle ride along the Hangang Saturday and on Sunday afternoon made the journey across Seoul and then hiked up to see Dosonsa Buddhist temple. Let’s go to the photos:
I don’t often ride the buses here in Seoul, but I did on Sunday. And here’s a photo of the bus stop in Itaewon to prove it.
An Itaewon street scene
“where is that damn bus anyway?”
oh, here it comes…
There ain’t nothing wrong with riding the bus by the way. They are clean and relatively comfortable. And sometimes not crowded…
But as it turns out this bus wasn’t going to where I wanted to be, so it was off the bus and onto the subway…
Ok, I think this train is right…
Maps are quick to note “you are here” but rarely shed much light on where you are going…
Not many travelers joining me on the platform…
Fellow riders…
Transferred to another bus and an hour later was on the streets of Uidong…
Old style house…
Bukhansan Park attracts lots of hikers traversing the numerous trails…
…but I followed the road that followed the stream flowing down from the mountain on which the temple sits…
…where I observed some of the last blossoms of my last spring in Korea…
After a walk/climb that tired me out more than I care to admit, I reached the temple gate…
I’m not a Buddhist so I can’t tell you much about these idols…
But it was a fine day to be out and about enjoying them..
Nice overlook of Seoul from the temple grounds…
Buddha’s birthday is May 21 and his follower’s have purchased traditional lanterns to hang on the temple grounds. I’m thinking you write a wish for blessings to hang with the lantern or something like that.
Some of the detail on a temple building…
The man of the hour. You can see the discoloration on Buddha’s belly. See folks stick their thumb in the navel and rotate the hand counter clockwise and receive Buddha’s blessing. It was probably a good thing that I kept my shirt on to avoid any possible confusion…
And so ends another fine Sunday adventure in Korea…
Continuing the photo essay of my recent adventure on Oahu…
Oddly enough, most of the vegetation in Hawaii is not in fact native to the islands…
but it’s all good as far as I’m concerned…
“way better than Cheju-do!”
Blue on blue and some happy canines…
“don’t bother taking a picture because those telephone wires are ruining the vista. What? Oh well, never mind.”
Ready for lunch? Actually, the restaurant takes it name “The Crouching Lion” because the rocks behind the restaurant are alleged to look like, well, a crouching lion. I honestly couldn’t see it though. I’m that way with constellations too.
Still, the restaurant was quite charming…
The view from our table was, er, appetizing…
“bago payo!”
“ah, now that’s more like it!”
Next up, the Waimea Valley…see you there!
Continuing our Majestic Grand Circle Island Tour, we visited a Buddhist Temple established around the turn of the century by a Japanese monk.
Quite beautiful don’t you think? And that’s a million-dollar backdrop…
A little closer and different angle. What you can’t see from the photo (or in real life for that matter) is the nails used for construction. That’s because no nails were used. Don’t ask me how, maybe it was a freakin’ miracle.
The Temple’s primary resident…
There was of course the traditional bell…
…well I’m not a particularly religious man, but nothing ventured nothing gained…
…I mean happiness and long life are worth the effort…
Of course, some would argue I’ve already had a long life, but why take chances?
Next stop was the nut farm, but I escaped. Not before buying some chocolate covered macadamias for the folks at the office and a bag of nuts for my pal Jenn of I Got 2 Shoes fame.
If I understood correctly, these are the founders of the nut farm. The current owner greeted us warmly, gave out free samples of Kona coffee and various varieties of his nutty concoctions. Real friendly guy and seemed genuinely happy to have us visit. But then again, we all were spending money. But I’m sure he would have been nice regardless.
Anyway, that’s it for tonight. I’m off to the first round of the playoffs which will feature the Rubbies versus Cake Mix at Dillinger’s Bar. I’m there as a fan rather than a player this time…